Seminar: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Musician and Brandeis instructor James Heazlewood-Dale elucidates the musical genius of Ennio Morricone in this introduction to the soundtrack behind Sergio Leone’s epic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

About James Heazlewood-Dale

Dr. James Heazlewood-Dale, a distinguished scholar, performer, and Grammy-nominated bassist, hails from Sydney, Australia. Venturing to Boston to pursue studies in jazz double bass at the prestigious Berklee School of Music and the New England Conservatory, where he received full scholarships, Dr. Heazlewood-Dale has shared the stage with world-renowned artists, including Jacob Collier, Maria Schneider, Grace Kelly, Terence Blanchard, and Zakir Hussain.

In recognition of outstanding academic achievement, Dr. Heazlewood-Dale was honored with Brandeis University's Provost Research Award. His Ph.D. research delves into the captivating intersection of jazz and video game music, a topic he has presented at esteemed national conferences, including those for the American Musicological Society, the Musicological Society of Australia, the Jazz Education Network, and the College Music Society.

Dr. Heazlewood-Dale's scholarly contributions can be found in various publications, including Jazz and Culture (University of Illinois Press), Environmental Humanities and the Video Game (Palgrave Macmillan), and Adaptation, Rearrangement, and Music Across Screen Media (Routledge). Notably, he was commissioned by Decca Records to craft the liner notes for the soundtrack release of The Callisto Protocol (2022) and featured as a scholarly guest in Adam Neely's acclaimed video essay "The Nintendo-fication of Jazz." He is currently a professor at Brandeis University, lecturing on film music and video game history.